The Great Art

By Antoine Joseph Pernety

It is not given to all to penetrate the innermost sanctuary of the secrets of Nature, very few know the road that leads to it. Some, impatient, err by taking paths which seem to shorten the route; others find, at almost every step, cross-roads which perplex them, lead to the left and to Tartarus, instead of holding the right which lead to the Elysian Fields, because they have not, as Aeneas, a sibyl for a guide. Others think not to be mistaken in following the most beaten and most frequented ways. Yet all perceive, after long labors, that far from having reached their aim, they have either passed on one side or turned their back upon it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Dec 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9783748138891

Book preview

The Great Art

The Great Art

Preface

Preliminary Discourse

General Principles of Physics According to Hermetic Philosophy

Of the First Matter

Of Nature

Of Light and Its Effects

Of Man

Of the Elements

Of the Earth

Of Water

Of the Air

Of Fire

Of the Operations of Nature

Of the General Aspects of the Mixts

Of the Differences between the Three Kingdoms

Of the Soul of Mixts

Of the Generation and Corruption of the Mixts

Of Light

Of the Preservation of Mixts

Of The Moist Radical

Of the Harmony of the Universe

Of Movement

Treatise on the Great Work

Philosophical Counsels

Aphorism. Of the Truth of the Sciences

The key of Science

Of Secrecy

Of the Means of Arriving at the Secret

Of the Keys of Nature

Of Metallic Principles

Of the Matter of the Magnum Opus in General

Ancient Philosophical Names given to this Matter

Matter is all and yet Simple

The Key of the Work

Definitions and Properties of this Mercury

Of the Vase of Art and That of Nature

Names given to This Vase by the Ancients

Of Fire in General

Of Philosophical Fire

Operative Principles

Operation Principles in Particular

Demonstrative Signs or Principles

Of the Elixir

Operation of the Elixir according to d’Espagnet

Quintessence

The Tincture

The Multiplication

Of the Weights in the Work

Very instructive General Rules

Of the Virtue of the Medicine

Of the Maladies of the Metals

Of the times of the Stone

Conclusion

Addenda

Alchemical Characters

Footnotes

Copyright

The Great Art

Antoine Joseph Pernety

Preface

UNDER the auspices of the Universite Libre des Hautes Etudes of Paris, a Branch of which has recently been established in America, we publish the first volume of a series of classical works whose study constitutes the foundation of the teaching of the "Faculte des Sciences Hermetiques.

It is not without reason that we have chosen Pernety to inaugurate this series. Of the three thousand volumes composing the bibliography of ALCHEMY, those of Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety are the only ones in which the theories of the Artificers are exposed with method: he is the first and only writer who has endeavored to present a short, concise and complete system of the Magnum Opus.

Those valiant defenders of the mystic Faith, to whom we are indebted for the present universal awakening of Idealism, have not failed to recognize the important role which Hermetic Philosophers have played in the preservation and transmission of the sacred tradition regarding the rapports existing between God, Man and Nature. Unhappily they have found themselves face to face with the Sphinx, unable to solve the enigma; they have lost their way in the inextricable labyrinth of apparently contradictory symbols and signs, and in the darkness of their ignorance, they have been incapable of distinguishing Truth from the rubbish that surrounds it, or of separating pure physical facts from mere mystical speculations. Having a vague intuition that Hermetism was not solely concerned with the transmutation of metals, but also with the spiritual emancipation of Man, they have profited by a few analogies which presented themselves, and have created a mystical Alchemy in which the inner man is the exclusive subject. But while such interpretation may, in many instances, be applied to alchemical symbolism, and while we may believe that in this we follow the traditions of the Rosicrucians (who founded a system in which Alchemy and Kabbalah were indissolubly blended), modern commentators, borrowing the jargon of the Alchemists - who are never more obscure than when they appear to express themselves plainly[1] - have drawn analogies which a mere acquaintance with the fundamental principles of Physical Alchemy would suffice to cause to be rejected as utterly devoid of appropriateness.

Rosicrucians were indeed mystics, but their studies were above all of a purely physical and experimental character; their association of mysticism and chemistry was founded upon analogies the truth of which could be demonstrated in the laboratory and duly verified by the physical senses. No metaphysical proposition was accepted by them which could not be fully confirmed by scientific demonstrations, according to the practice of Roger Bacon, the father of the experimental method.

Alchemists acquired the knowledge of Divine operations by the study of human arts and the observation of natural phenomena. Hermetism begins with the study of the operations of Nature, and ends with the knowledge of the Divine Principle. None, however, must hope to behold the secret Sun of this Royal Art while he remains in darkness regarding the fundamental principles of physical Hermetism, or Alchemy.

The Spagyric Art is a dead science; it has long since uttered its last word; nothing remains but a few tracts, fragments of its outer vestment, and a multitude of worthless lucubrations by pseudo-adepts; the secret is lost, for future generations to recover; but, in order to be freed from the trouble of ransacking dusty old books and manuscripts, and of reconstituting, word after word, this science in its integrity by patient research; in order to avoid the tedious work of deciphering the hieroglyphic pentacles and of restoring the secret meaning of the mutilated tracts of the Masters which have reached us through the centuries, one is not permitted to invent a new Hermetism, to enlarge it, or to attribute to it a signification which, most probably, it never had. Hermetism is what it is, and we must accept its teachings for what they are worth, without trying to reconcile them with the assertions of modern science, or to give to them any signification that may suggest itself.

Hermetic Philosophy has long since been rejected by the School, and scientific means of investigation are here of no practical use, even XIXth century chemistry offers no clue; for the ideas of the Spagyric Art are absolutely the antithesis of those of official chemistry. The student must make use of other means; but let him guard against preconceived ideas, against his ardent desire to verify, in the obscure symbols of medieval Artists, his own suppositions. Let him remember that Symbols prove everything, and that the signs chosen to defend the affirmative of any proposition, may also be used successfully in demonstrating the negative of the same proposition; symbols are the expression of the Absolute which is neither positive or negative, but positive and negative, according to the point of view from which one judges.

Thus, in order to distinguish the right way, which leads to the Elysian Fields, from that which borders Tartarus, the assistance of a trusty guide is indispensable. Unfortunately such guides are few, and if, perchance, one is found, the student, ninety-nine times in a hundred, far from being willing to follow in silence, prefers to choose his own way. If the student depends upon his supposed willingness to obey his Initiator, let him shut this book and renounce his plan of lifting the veil which covers the arcana of Hermetic Philosophy, for unprepared as he surely is, he will either fall a victim to impostors, or fail to acknowledge with gratitude the heavenly gift of a Mentor.

There is but one method whereby one may succeed without a Master in reconstituting, in its completeness, the Lost Science, and this method which we take pleasure in revealing, as plainly as possible, is infallible in its results. It constitutes the most potent operation of the Ars Magica: the EVOCATION. We shall describe it under its general aspect, referring the Reader to the special works on Transcendental Magic for full details:

Evocation consists in causing departed spirits to manifest their presence before the Conjuror. But as spirits can only appear immaterially - and as influences rather than individuals - it goes without saying that these beings cannot manifest themselves in tangible form, (susceptible of being photographed), unless appeal is made to our own semi-material, semi-spiritual principle, to our Astral Body; this, however, constitutes the Great Operation to which it is neither necessary nor advisable to have recourse, so much the more that the Evocation, such as we recommend, differs from the Great Operation in that it is of longer duration, practically permanent; whilst the latter is dependent upon the powers of the Conjuror; moreover the Great Operation is possible only for the Initiate in Theurgy, whilst the simple Evocation, as here described, can be performed with success by any one who possesses the pass-words of the First Degree of Initiation: PATIENCE and WILL-POWER.

The Evocation, or Operation of the lesser Mysteries, consists in recreating the atmosphere in which the departed lived while on earth. It is therefore important that the choice of an invisible Master be made intelligently from the long list of Hermetic Philosophers. The Operator must know the biography of that Master and obtain a correct impression of his exterior appearance; he must know the history of the time in which that Master lived, the geography of the country in which he resided, the topography of his city, the plan of his house, the disposition of his laboratory. Helping himself by whatever informations books, monuments or tradition can furnish, the Neophyte will assemble and classify every detail concerning the home-life, customs, daily vocations, etc., so as to reconstitute, in the imaginative world, the life of the selected Guide. Place him amidst his disciples, either in his laboratory or at the amphitheatre of the school where he taught; gather all the works most probably known and studied by him, read and re-read them; write from memory the very works of that Master, especially his most obscure passages, for the soul of a writer can always be found in his words, ready to convey the true interpretation to the one eager to discover it. Collect objects contemporaneous to that Master, especially books, instruments and works of art. All this constitutes the restoration of the most material part of the atmosphere that will serve as the vehicle for the true magnetic force which shall be the bond uniting the soul, or influence, of the invisible Master to that of the Conjuror. This true magnetic fluid must be established between the mind of the Operator, which now is active, and that of the Master, which is passive; when the rapports are at last established, the mind of the Guide becomes the positive pole and that of the initiate the negative pole of this intellectual battery. To generate the magnetic fluid the student must place his intellect on the same level as that of his chosen Preceptor: he must learn to know and to ignore that which the Master knew and ignored; he must believe that which the invisible believed, when on earth, whether modern science accepts or rejects these beliefs; he must think over the same thoughts of the Master, speak his own words, use the same expressions, recite the same prayers, practice the same religion, acquire the same habits, perform the same acts of virtue, live the same life; in a word, he must place the heart and the mind in a thoroughly sympathetic condition, in a perfect unison with the heart and mind of his Mentor, so as to attract the latter into his own atmosphere again, of which he will become the intellectual center, as formerly; he will incarnate himself in his disciple whose mind, now a plastic clay, will acquire in its highest degree the faculty of receptivity, and will become susceptible of receiving the least impressions from the outer world. The Influence of the being thus evoked, thus brought back into the world by an irresistible magnetism, will then unite with the Operator and continue, through the latter's instrumentality, the work which death interrupted. It is thus that Hans de Bulow, who lived among the souvenirs, the works and the relics of Beethoven, consecrating his entire life to the study of this Master, succeeded in giving that traditional expression established by the composer for the interpretation of his Sonatas and Symphonies.

In order to really possess a Master and perform his works as the author himself imagined them, we must prepare within ourselves a temple fit to receive him; we must place all our mental faculties under his control, we must become a docile instrument into his hands. But, by the law of reaction, this complete submission on our part soon becomes the manifestation of our absolute independence, of our absolute intellectual freedom.

This is the course which we recommend to all our students, and it is to instruct them concerning the scientific opinions of the Hermetic Philosophers that we publish this work of dom Pernety. The opinions herein expressed may not be in accordance with the teaching of scholastic knowledge, but we do not present this work as a substitute for classical Physics and Chemistry. The theories exposed by Pernety were those of the Alchemists! For the mystic, for the seeker of the Universal Panacea, or Philosopher's Stone, the science described in this Treatise is all that is required; nay, it is the sole one to be accepted, regardless of its differences from the results of modern investigation which, for our purpose, are utterly worthless. Just as it is indispensable for the pupils of Edison and Tesla to base their studies upon the latest works on Natural Philosophy, however erroneous the science of tomorrow may prove them to be; it is indispensable, for those who do not recognize the impossibility of transmuting metals, to base their investigations upon the science which was sufficient to Arnaud de Villeneuve, Nicolas Flamel and Paracelsus."[2]

The present work which we have entitled TREATISE ON THE GREAT ART is composed of the introductory remarks preceding the principal works on Alchemy of the savant dom Pernety, especially his Fables Egyptiennes et Grecques devoilees et reduites au meme principe , (a Paris, chez Bauche, 2 volumes in I2, I758). This work is almost the sole source from which modern expounders of Alchemy have derived their informations, forgetting, of course, to give due credit to this author, excluding his works from the bibliographical lists terminating their compilations and even going so far, in some instances, as to mutilate his name, when compelled to quote extensively from his works. The publication of this TREATISE constitutes as much a work of justice and restitution to the learned French monk, as an effort to contribute to the renaissance of a Science containing within itself the germs of the most important and unexpected discoveries and offering a sure guide in the maze of obscure symbols of this most obscure of all Occult Sciences.

Antoine-Joseph Pernety was born in Roanne, France, in 1716; and died at Valence (Dauphine), in 1801. At an early age he joined the Benedictine Congregation of Saint-Maur and there devoted his life to these patient studies for which Benedictine monks are justly famous; he published numerous works on theology and fine arts, geography and mythology, philosophy and mathematics, but he became celebrated for his researches in the realm of the hidden Sciences. His explorations into forgotten lore led him to the creation of the Academie d’Avignon a sect of Illuminati whose influence in Freemasonry has long been felt: the most famous, if not the most important, degree introduced in the Masonic nomenclature by Pernety is the Twenty-eighth of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, known as Knight of the Sun, or Prince Adept; and a considerable part of his rite is still preserved in other masonic systems, such as the Martinist Order.

The work which we present to the public is the result of a comparative study of the writings of the Spagyric Philosophers of all times, schools and nationalities, and not merely a summary of the author's personal ideas on the subject; it is a monument of patient research, representing over a quarter of a century of investigation. The writer has carefully analyzed the classical compositions of the Masters, preserving with religious care the dogmas upon which they all agree, and setting aside their contradictions, basing himself upon the axiom that Truth, when once discovered, is the same for all, while error only offers opportunity for discussion.[3] Pernety, following the example of Trevisan, has compared with an extreme attention the Greek, Alexandrian, Arab, French, German, Dutch, English, Kabbalistic, Rosicrucian and Islamic schools of Hermetism, presenting the synthesis of their doctrines in the lucid manner so characteristic of the French savant, by nature the mortal enemy of all that which is obscure and incomprehensible.

The present work is divided into three parts: an Introductory Discourse, an Expose of Natural Philosophy according to Hermetists, without which all attempt to understand the Art of Transmutations is impossible, and the Theory and Practice of the Magisterium, or Royal Art, briefly, but completely presented.

The editor of this translation has preserved in the text the notes of Pernety himself, and has introduced, as foot-notes, annotations borrowed from other works of Pernety, from Albert Poisson, the Champollion of Alchemy, Dr. Papus, Jollivet-Castelot, de Guai'ta, etc., in the very few places where the text seemed to allow a complementary explanation. These annotations are always followed by the name of the author to whom the translator is indebted.

The work contains also a table of Alchemical Characters which are so frequently met with in spagyric works and a short Dictionary of Hermetic Symbols, compiled by the lamented Albert Poisson for his "Theories et Symboles des Alchimistes," which will afford great help in the reading of alchemic pentacles.

E. B.

Preliminary Discourse

DO not expect to have the approbation of those vast, sublime and penetrating minds which embrace all, which know all without having learned anything, which dispute concerning everything, which decide about everything without knowledge of the cause. It is not to such people that one gives lessons; to them belongs the